Dungeness

We made our way lazily to Dungeness (Kent), this morning, driving along the coast from near Rye and bumping into Neil, Jan and Dave at the East Sussex/Kent border viewing Scotney Pit around 9:30. We'd only seen a single Green Sandpiper and two or three Marsh Harriers, but here we added Little Egret, Barnacle Goose (c55), and the nine or ten strange hybrid geese with white heads.

Exchanging some local news, we moved on to view the three Bewick's Swans visible from the roadside before the RSPB reserve entrance before enjoying a breakfast/lunch at the cafe next to the light railway. Fueled up, we then replenished our winter bird food supplies at the RSPB visitor centre enjoying a couple of Tree Sparrows along the track on route. Moving over to the ARC side of the reserve, we enjoyed watching two Bitterns flying out from the reeds across the water on three occasions. We also saw: Marsh Harrier (1), Kingfisher (1), Goldeneye (4) Ruddy Duck (6) and the three Bewick's Swans seen earlier flew in.

News on the pager then alerted us to a Grey Phalarope on a pit between Lydd and Camber Sands, so we made the effort to arrive before the light became any worse and was amazed to find on arrival both Ray Turley and Paul Trodd watching the phalarope about six feet from them! After the bird had moved away some, we joined them on the bank side and it was not long before again the phalarope entertained us almost within arms reach. Wonderful!

Grey Phalarope

Grey Phalarope
Grey Phalarope

Grey Phalarope

Grey Phalarope

Bittern

Bewick's Swans